Okay, this was new and even a little weird and strange for me. One of our customers sent me a recipe for a Chocolate Frosting made out of, get this, avocados—yes, those beautiful little green, pear-shaped fruits that grow on trees and don’t begin to ripen until they are off the stem. It was the name, Stone Age Chocolate Frosting that got to me. What the heck does this mean? Okay, I was off to the internet to look up the words Stone Age and Diet. Here’s what I discovered.

It comes for the Paleolithic Diet—Paleo Diet or popularly known as the caveman or hunter-gatherers’ diet. It is assumed to be a modern nutritional plan based on the presumed ancient diet of wild plants and animals that various hominid species habitually consumed during the Paleolithic period—about 2.5 million years which ended around 10,000 years ago with the development of agriculture and grain-based diets. While this diet claims to provide a healthier lifestyle, it should be noted, however, that the lifespan of the Upper Paleolithic (Late Stone Age) man was only about 33 years from birth.

The Paleo Diet was first popularized in the mid-1970s by gastroenterologist Dr. Walter L. Voegtlin. I found that this nutritional concept has been promoted and adapted by a number of authors and researchers in several books and academic journals. Paleolithic nutrition is based on the premise that modern humans are genetically adapted to the diet of their Paleolithic ancestors and that human genetics have scarcely changed since the dawn of agriculture and therefore it is an ideal diet for human health and well-being and is one that resembles this ancestral diet.

The avocados and coconut oil give this Paleo-inspired chocolate frosting a healthy dose of plant-based fats (instead of butter or Crisco) creating a tasty new way to top cookies and cupcakes which do have to be made out of grains. Oh, there goes another fad diet.

Okay, it tastes a little different. It only takes minutes to make and it’s good for a lot of around-the-table dinner conversation. Try it and let me know what you think.

Here’s a train that’s always on time! Chocolate artist Andrew Farrugia spent over 700 hours constructing his masterpiece—a train made entirely of chocolate. This chocolate sculpture set a Guinness World Record as the longest chocolate structure in the world—112 feet long weighing over 2,800 pounds.

Located at Brussels’ busy South Station, Farrugia claims to have come up with the idea for a chocolate train sculpture after visiting the Belgian Chocolate Festival in Bruges last year.

“I had this idea for a while,” he said. “What do you think if we do this realization of a long chocolate train, you know, because make a train as long as you like.”

The original plan was a more modest size train, but it just kept getting longer, car after car after car. Farrugia had previously built a smaller 12-foot train for an event in Malta, which he said gave him insight about how to build this larger version.

There are two parts to the train. The first seven cars are modeled after the Belgian trains of today, and the rest of the train is modeled after older train cars, including the bar and restaurant car. I’ll bet they serve chocolate mousse for dessert.

Three days before the event, Farrugia transported the chocolate train by truck in 25 wooden boxes from Malta to Belgium. After measuring the length of the train and confirming no material other than chocolate was used, the officials from the Guinness Book of World Records added a new category to the collection of world records and declared the train to be the longest chocolate structure in the world.

This is definitely going to become your go-to chocolate pie from now on. It is simple to make and Mmmm…yummy to eat! It is sky-high and simply scrumptious—one of the best fluffy chocolate delights to serve for a fall or holiday dessert. You can put the pie together in a wink and a nod and it will disappear just as fast! You can substitute a store-bought chocolate or graham cracker crust and just mound the filling within and let it cool. As a bonus, add a couple of tablespoons of Choclatique Chocolate Curls or Decoratifs as a fancy sprinkle on top.

In a medium bowl, mix together crushed cookies, almond extract and softened butter and press mixture evenly around the bottom and edges of the springform pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 5 minutes; allow to thoroughly cool.

In a microwave-safe bowl combine 1 cup cream, chocolate chips, vanilla extract and salt; heat in 15 second burst until chocolate is fully melted and mixture is smooth. The chocolate chips will not change shape until you mix. Do not burn.

Set the chocolate mixture aside to cool completely to room temperature, stirring occasionally.

This is a gluten-free cake that uses ground almonds or almond flour to replace the wheat flour usually found in sponge cakes of this kind. You can find almond flour in many supermarkets, Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s. If you are preparing the almonds yourself using a food processor or blender, chop only a half cup at a time as electric food processors tend to separate too much of the oil from the nut meats. Do not pack the ground nut down when measuring.